Life support

While they were living together publisher Jane Johnson and novelist Mike Harrison argued too much to write together. Since splitting up, though, they've become the two halves of the bestselling Gabriel King

Life support

While they were living together publisher Jane Johnson and novelist Mike Harrison argued too much to write together. Since splitting up, though, they've become the two halves of the bestselling Gabriel King

Jane Johnson: Meeting Mike for the first time was terrifying. He was a tremendously intellectual award-winning writer with a very fierce aspect and I was a very junior editor who had just bought the paperback versions of two of his hardback novels.

We met at a publisher's party and later had lunch and got on incredibly well. Going out with one another was difficult because Mike lived in Yorkshire and I lived in London - but added to that was Mike's obsession with rock climbing and my terror of heights. The only way I ever got to see him was to accompany him rock climbing.

We decided to make a life together and bought a cheap attic flat in Peckham Rye. It was vile, but we stayed there seven years. We had a lot of arguments because Mike was a literary writer and I was a fiction publisher: I believe writing should reach as many people as possible. These arguments spread to other things until we were falling out more than we were getting on.

When we split up, Mike stopped climbing for a while and I became completely obsessed. We also started writing novels together, as Gabriel King. We had made various aborted attempts, but never had the impetus to get going on it while we lived together. Breaking up released us to work together in a way that we could never have done before.

I had been Tolkein's editor since the 80s and I always said to Mike that we must write a big epic fantasy together. Writing is usually such a solitary and lonely business, so this was wonderful. I like to have a plan of action, whereas Mike likes to get in there and start writing the bits he's interested in. So we split the characters into two separate narratives, each taking one, and then weaving them in and out of one another.

We are now working on our fourth novel together and also on solo projects. I've just spent two weeks in New Zealand on the film set of the adaption of Tolkein's The Hobbit; I'm writing a book to come out with the film. But whether or not we are working on our own, we still rely on each other for advice about publishing negotations or someone to strike ideas off.

Mike Harrison: I was living in Yorkshire and all my money was spent on rock climbing gear and none on clothes. When we met I was wearing some ghastly tweed jacket. I was instantly besotted with Jane. Thereafter I would spend two hours a day thinking of as many excuses as I could to phone her.

Jane's personality is a combination of power and placidity. I would push her too far banking on that placidity and then get bitten. And I am incredibly intense; if I'm not on fire with something I'm not alive, and I think that tired Jane. It was like living with a maniac. I write in the same intense way. I find it difficult to write anything for weeks then I'll write non-stop for four days.

Breaking up took me longer to get over because I am such a romantic. I was a little heartbroken. The amusing or amazing thing is that we spent nearly nine years together but couldn't write a book together, and the moment we split up we were able to do it. Writing together enabled us to run the relationship down calmly rather than just flying apart. We have since gone on to form other relationships.

We came up with a name, Gabriel King: the first name had to have three syllables to read well on a cover, and be a little fey so that it could be a man or a woman. Collaborations are rare in fiction and it is very hard to make them work. At book signings Jane signs Gabriel and I sign King. Readers are often quite shocked to find that there are two of us.

We've got complimentary qualities: she's a good editor and writes much faster than me; I write very intensely and say here it is. When I work on my own I start with a very strong structure so I can write the end, then the middle and the beginning last of all. That's not possible when working with someone else. The advantage of writing in two strands is that you get two completely different tones of voice. Jane's central character sounds completely different to mine. You would have to work very hard to get that as a solo writer.

 Gabriel King's third novel The Knot Garden is published in paperback on 4 January (£10, Century).